A/N: I bet you thought you wouldn't see the likes of me...which means (maybe) a flashback to his last birthday before the si took over. Expect to see a young Shigaraki here, as well as a certain bad guy. Updates will be slow going, because most of this is touch and go, meaning I'm thinking deeply about most of it, and how to make it work. Please do review and tell me how I'm doing with everything. Anyhow, this is the next chapter out of many more to go. Anyway, "Touya" is around 17/18 at the moment and it will stay that way for a while until I start slowly aging him up. A lot still has to happen before canon begins, with my own twists and turns, of course. So, happy birthday Shouto and Touya! (Saying that now in case this is posted after the fact.)

Been watching Evangelion for the first time and it inspired me to update this fic.

All for One appears this chapter! His first debut. He will make many appearances. But he does not care about Touya that much, Shigaraki is much more interesting for him.

Chapter 5 Pyrosophy

2004, our time, pre-quirk era

"What have you done? You pushed her off the slide!"

Voices, voices everywhere.

"You see, we believe your son..."

"He's not my biological son, we just adopted him because his mother didn't want him anymore."

"Okay, then, ma'am, we believe that A...iden...has autism. We believe he has it due to him matching most of the symptoms. He doesn't often respond to his name much in class. He often doesn't pay attention to anything besides his books and while he does well in the English lessons, his math scores are terrible. He sits by himself at recess and plays alone. Does any of this sound like something you've noticed?"

"How dare you! You dare suggest that he's autistic? He isn't, he's a normal boy! You people and your crazy ideas about everything!"

"Every last little thing in a child is bad these days. You act like they're unnatural just because they don't read and play the normal way a child would. Well, maybe he's a genius, or maybe he's just a regular boy! I don't believe autism is caused by anything but bad parenting. Our Aiden does not have autism!" A male voice shouted.

"Ma'am, please listen, it would be in your best interest to take him to a program for those with autism. His socialization skills are terrible and he needs to understand other people, or else he'll never be able to adjust to society. If you'll just come with me..."

"No! Absolutely not! He doesn't have autism, that disease is made up! You people caused it with your vaccines and your crazy talk! You poisoned our child!"

"You just want to drug him up! No way." The male voice agreed.

A small child, a boy, sitting there, with bright, sky blue eyes, and dark brown, almost black hair, sat there, playing with his toys. He was around six years of age.

"Mommy, is something wrong?" He asked, looking up at them.

"No, it's-it's nothing, sweetheart. You have nothing wrong with you." She smiled before holding his hand.

"Mommy, what's autism?"

She froze. "It's...it's a condition some people make up to make other children sound bad. Everyone learns at their own pace. You're simply growing a bit slower than others your age. You'll get better, I know it."

He smiled brightly. "You're great, Mama! I know I'll do better! Next time I won't push Lizzie! I swear, I'll be nice to her!"

There was a girl waiting for him with brown hair and eyes. "My name's Morgan, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine! My name is Aiden, it's nice to meet you!"

He shook her hand, and the two of them smiled and started playing together.

"Aiden, this is my favorite manga. Have you ever heard of it? It's called...Hero..."

The dreams were fading and mixing, spinning into a variety of colors.

"...Dabi. Are you all right? You had a bad nightmare." The young boy from before said, his eyes blue as the fire that burned on Dabi's hands.

"I'm fine...but...who are you?"

The boy before him smiled. "I know you better than you know yourself. You don't believe you're strong, but you are."

"Who are you, really?" He held out a hand to the boy, but he looked at him fiercely.

"What you're doing right now...isn't right. You must stop and leave, Dabi. Or else you'll die."

"What do you mean...die?"

The blue flames sprang up all around him.

"You're not meant to be here, with All for One. Do what you have to do and leave, before it's too late. It's not too late to change."

"But I...I killed people! This is where I'm supposed to be!"

The boy disappeared and with it, his consciousness spun towards awakening.

A pair of blue eyes opened as their owner gazed up at an unfamiliar ceiling.

Wait...this was...the place he'd been in since last week.

The staples itched and burned like they always did.

Something trickled down his cheek and landed on his hand.

Gazing at it, Dabi noticed his cheek was bleeding.

No, it was more than that...upon looking at himself in the mirror, he realized that red droplets were leaking from his eyes.

He had been crying, or rather...bleeding tears in his sleep.

But why? Did it have to do with his lost memories?

"I fucking hate this amnesia shit." He muttered, as he rubbed at the blood and got a tissue to wipe it off.

This had been a place loaned to him by someone named...Kuro...Kurogiri. That's right.

A villain had been kind enough to lend him a place to live for now.

But what did this have to do with Endeavor?

Absolutely nothing, as far as he knew, the man avoided villains like the plague.

Which meant, he'd be safe here, for now at least, although if he needed to leave, he would.

The reflection that looked back was the same one he usually saw, a scarred mess of a person. The blood was trickling down both of his cheeks, for some reason. He reached out with one hand and wiped it away from his face.

Using the towel from the bathroom, he wiped at his face.

It seemed to work well enough by his standards.

Sighing, he got ready to clean himself up, and stripped his clothes off, showing the entirety of the scars across his body.

The hot water poured down on him like hot lava, but he welcomed it nonetheless.

The purple scars burned every time he touched them in the scalding hot water, but despite that, he continued on with the shower.

As he did so, a stream of purple dye dripped down and

The dye trickled down from his hair, showing the red of his natural roots, although there was a strange patch in the middle of them. He frowned and reexamined it.

White hair, huh? More of that, okay then. So maybe his quirk was to magically change his hair color, that made too much sense. Endeavor had disowned him because he had been too much for him to take-how dare a son not take after his father in terms of looks! Joking aside, that might actually have explained a few things, he thought darkly, glancing at it. It did indeed contain proof that he was related to that family, but that woman in the pictures...

Anyway, snow-white hair was in the middle of his roots, the sides and on some of the tips of his hair, it hadn't really changed too much since he'd woken up, although every now and again, another hair would turn white. But it seemed to be confined to the middle, not the front, and it was easily hidden by the hair dye, so no real problem, right?

After all, it wasn't like anyone knew his real identity, right? Right?

Uncertainty gripped at his heart the way the shadowy hand did sometimes in his dream when he was thinking of something he shouldn't.

There was at least one individual who'd heard of his identity before this, and it was the man that called himself "All for One." He'd said the same name that disgusting nurse, and the red-haired parasite had used to refer to him as-"Touya." Only this time, it had -kun attached to it, even more sickening, cuz he didn't really know the man.

He felt an instinctual dislike for the man for some reason he could not quite understand, but the man had saved him from going to prison.

Surely that meant he wouldn't be chased down by Endeavor here and brought back down under his control? He could be safe here, right?

The man who'd called himself All for One had called him that name, the same one that ripped at his very soul to expose his bare self, expose his very fear. The man possessed the power to send shivers into your very heart. No matter what fear you had, the man could see right through you, he could just take that fear and use it on you like you meant nothing.

At least, that was the impression he had gotten from him, but he didn't know him too incredibly well just yet.

He'd merely told him to enjoy the stay and that while he had no real purpose for him yet, that in the future, that time would come.

He wasn't sure he liked the sound of that, but the man had reminded him of how he was currently wanted by the police for murder, and warned him of what would happen if he ran away. Would he tell the police on him? He doubted it.

The taunting words he'd used to refer to him still left his brain reeling like crazy, mostly because of the use of that name.

That had to be his real name.

Had to be.

For some reason, when he'd met with the man named All for One, he was under the impression that the man not only knew his identity, but had also been responsible for his condition when he'd escaped, and possibly had helped cover it up.

But when he'd asked, the man had simply stated that he'd believed he had died and hadn't really looked into much on him because he'd been busy working with someone named...Shigaraki?

He hadn't really gotten a strong impression of Shigaraki, but from what little he gathered of his personality, he seemed like a real winner-and by real winner, he meant uninteresting and arrogant.

He hadn't even replied when he had tried to introduce himself earlier and had closed the door in his face.

What a jerk.

Although he understood why he wanted to be alone, heroes weren't always the most tolerant, and perhaps he'd thought he was a fellow hero infiltrating the villains.

But that wasn't enough for him, apparently.

He hadn't stood out enough for Shigaraki's tastes, although to be fair, he was shy himself and did not really know how to approach people, so perhaps it was less a case of clashing personalities than it was that the two of them hadn't really gotten to know each other yet.

Maybe he was just feeling a tad resentful, a tad angry, perhaps it had something to do with the way he had been smirking at him, as though he was some kind of object he could crush? As if he could handle him, Dabi could handle him if things got bad.

After all, if things got bad, he could always run away from his problems and start over again.

He got up and went over to his television and turned it on, having found nothing else to do with himself for the time being. Time to be entertained by cheap, fake news made by cheap, fake people. Yay, pristine entertainment!

"And on this show of Heroic Home Improvement, we take this condo a villain ran into the ground and made it look so much better! We installed nice anti-quirk barriers for the children so they can't hurt themselves while playing, and even have a nice little railing for those with flying quirks to practice flying off of! There's a swimming pool, too, but it's restricted to adults only so no one with any water quirks will drown. Overall, we're looking at a nice price of 100,000 yen! Call now!"

Ew, no. Why would he even be interested in something so dull? They took what had unique character and crushed it into something gross and unappealing, all cuz they could.

"Those villains even ruined the sink. They made it not work right."

All of this coming from people who stormed onto someone else's property, revamped it and made it their own and claimed it wasn't theirs. Okay, then.

-CLICK-

"This All Might medallion is going for 80,000 yen, it's a first edition! It's pristine, fine and it is divine! Your friends will wish they were as PLUS ULTRA AS YOU, DOING SO!"

Jesus, what an obnoxiously loud slogan, and did they have to be that fucking loud?

"And here we have the delicious ENDEAVORITES! Flaming hot with every bite, they'll make you breathe fire like Endeavor! This is a limited run, so get these flaming hot chips while they last or else Endeavor will burn you out!"

What the fuck. The man was popular enough to get fucking food named after him, and yet he had the personality of a ringworm. Truly amazing.

"WE NOW RETURN TO...HERO RESCUE! YAAAAAAY!"

Dabi was lowering the volume...permanently. But for some reason, this show seemed familiar.

On the screen, a tv show was playing, a show with a character who looked like All Might.

Clearly it was a ripoff, a cheap knockoff for small children.

The villain character held children hostage, what an annoying character. The hero in the end defeated it by appealing to the villain's good heart and bringing him back to his senses. Every character cried tears of happiness upon seeing All-Bright's happiness and pure heart again save the day.

For twenty minutes, Dabi watched it, bored out of his senses and nodding off. He wasn't sure why on earth he'd even watched the stupid show, apparently he was that bored.

If this was the best heroes could do for propaganda, they really had nothing to back themselves up, huh?

Blinking in disgust, Dabi took a sip of the tea that had been left for him.

Peach-flavored tea, this villain guy had done his homework on him, all right. He even knew what his favorite flavor-er, only flavor of tea was, since that was the only flavor he even remembered trying, so perhaps he'd tried other types of tea before? It was a vague possibility in his mind, he had the feeling he'd tried others, perhaps...apple tea? Lemon tea? For some reason, he remembered types of American tea, despite never having been there before.

What was with his strange dreams? The boy in them didn't look anything like him, yet he'd felt a strong connection with him. The whole setting screamed America, yet he'd never been to America before in his entire life-er, whatever the fuck he could remember. But Endeavor seemed to be very much Japanese, and didn't seem like the type to travel overseas, from what little he knew of him.

The man seemed to keep to himself, he hardly ever saw him on TV beyond him bragging about how great he was, that and those horrible Endeavorites. He vowed to never try those as long as he lived.

"And here we have the recent graduates from UA, new and future heroes who will surely make the villains of this age tremble!"

Wow, so inspiring. If he tried hard enough, he could picture his heart shining and the goodness inside him coming back that he'd lost a long time ago. The day was saved, thanks to the kindness of such inspiring heroes. Nope, he was still here, still covered in scars and still the same. Whoops.

"First, we have Rumi Usagiyama, also known as Miruko!"

The camera focused on a young girl with tanned skin in a skintight outfit. She had white rabbit ears and hair that was the same color as her ears, and her eyes were a ruby red. Something about her seemed awfully familiar to Dabi, and he couldn't put his finger on it.

'Hyperactive.'

"I'm Miruko! First thing you need to know about me is that I'm better than all of you in every way possible! Second, I'm gonna kick every villain's ass!" She flashed a pose for the camera, "And then I'm gonna make them fear me, and then I'm gonna send you all to the hospitals and then I'm gonna treat you without pain medicine-"

"Uh...a very good introduction, Ms. Usagiyama. Now, let's introduce our next graduate. Takami Keigo."

A boy who looked like a bird with red wings appeared on the screen and the second he did, Dabi felt his reality swim-something was struggling to exit his head and break free of the chains of illusion.

Keigo Takami. Keigo Takami.

"My name's Keigo Takami, it's nice to meet all of you! I was just bursting at the seams, eager to meet all of you. I flew the coop to come see all of you! You can call me Hawks! I'll be doing my best to track down and arrest all of the villains that do bad things!"

"What makes you want to do this, Mr. Takami?" The reporter asked.

The boy froze for a second, before he continued speaking.

"Well, actually, it's for a selfish reason, but someone I used to know inspired me to become a hero. He understood me better than anyone. That's why I'll prove myself by being the hero he knew I could be." It felt like the boy was staring through the television right at him.

He felt a pang of annoyance fly through his body, and flames sprang to life on his hands.

"An annoying...pest..." He muttered.

"What's the reason you want to save people?"

"Well, I want to see them all smile and be happy. That's why I'm doing it. I'm doing it so they can all be happy and know nothing but happiness! This way, no one will ever be forgotten! I'll always remember all of you. I'll bring you all hope."

He was...an annoying, good-for-nothing hero that talked like he knew it all, what did they know of suffering, of hardships? Nothing, they got it all handed to them, and above all else, they had their memories, their families. All things he wished he could know about and have just like the rest of them. They had no idea how lucky they had it, always laughing, smiling, and being so happy. Those things tore at his heart and made him hurt so badly, so deeply. But did any of that matter?

Did it matter at all that he had amnesia, that he was here, alone and in pain and suffering, while the rest of the world got to laugh and look on?

That boy probably got to drink in happiness with all of his friends, come home to his parents, and live happily.

He was seething now, just thinking about this piece of shit made him see red.

They got to just...move on, just move on...while the world forgot about...Morgan! They always forgot! They always forgot about them, the sacrifices that had to be made to ensure the peace of humanity. They wouldn't mention their names at all, just refer to them as casualties of war or freak accidents, but victims were never good for anything in the eyes of society except as something to mourn over and make yourself look good for five seconds, and then forget about and move on from. On to the next tragedy, on to the next sacrifice, on to the next thing to rage over, mourn over or be sad over.

Even he had been mourned by society for a little while, but then the posters had stopped circulating. He, "Touya" was as invisible to them as any other victim was. They extolled and praised the people saved by heroes, but those who had died because of heroes usually received a passing mention and then a statement of a funeral, but hardly anything beyond that.

As a victim, he would have invariably gained more attention if he'd stayed in that hospital. Here, he was invisible and out of the eyes of many.

"What do you want to tell your audience about what it takes to become a hero like you?"

'Become a fake, obnoxiosu prick with no personality and act all fakey-fake in front of the camera? Yeah, I see right through you. You're shallow and sanctimonious. Fucking jerk.'

"Well, I'd say you have to be willing to light the fire from under you. Or else you can't ever shoot to the top." He was winking at the camera in a weird way.

Dabi didn't...like this man. He...he hated him.

What an annoying, pestilential and frustrating man.

Why did he feel this way?

He flicked the tv off, disinterested once again, and gazed around the room.

What the hell did that stupid hero, Hawks, know anyway about anything? Maybe they had gone to school together or something, but he was glad he'd forgotten such a stupid face belonging to a stupid kid. Stupid kid knew nothing about anything. Just thinking of that name made him feel both angry and like his chest hurt.

More flames appeared, hinting that he would soon be melting down if he kept that up.

He calmed and let the flames die down, as best he could.

Was his body responding to unknown emotions he had forgotten?

'Come on, Dabi, you're being absolutely paranoid, losing your shit about nothing and no one.'

He was overanalyzing a random person who had appeared on television for only a few minutes, at least. The link between them had to be a pretty tenuous one. So they had gone to the same school. So what?

It meant nothing, absolutely nothing.

He sat down at the table and painfully ate breakfast, aware of how much the staples in his jaw interfered with his chewing.

Even as it hurt, he kept eating.

For hurting was better than being dead.

He would show all of those heroes what it meant to really live.

After all, it was because of heroes that he'd been abandoned.

"None of you understand anything about what happens to people like me." He muttered, taking another sip of the tea.

And another sip, and another sip and another, until it was all finished.

Putting the glass in the sink, he eyed the mirror again.

"I'll show them what it means to be alive. Then maybe they'll understand what it's like to be empty and unwanted."

Fucking hypocrites.

He decided to go to the park to clear his mind.

Everyone had somewhere to go to relax, sometimes it was home, work...or others.

Dabi sat on a swing, even though it was too big for him, and swung back and forth.

It was relaxing here, nice enough to be far away from the bullshit of people and everyday life.

Dabi was what people called an introvert, he was very much not fond of people, and wouldn't really speak to them unless necessary. Amnesia notwithstanding, he understood that probably before he lost his memories, he probably was the exact same way.

He could only handle people and their bullshit in small doses, so this was a good way to relax.

A figure came up to him, a small child.

Almost instinctively, he gave up his seat for the child, bewildered at what prompted that sudden action.

The child smiled and thanked him.

That smile...it sent chills down his spine.

The boy had blue eyes.

The girl next to him on the swing...she had white hair.

So did the one next to him.

The others had red hair, too.

Why did they all look like that?

He clapped his hand on over his face and looked again.

The children looked perfectly normal.

The young girl before him had blond hair, not red, and she spoke to him softly. "Would you like a flower, mister?"

He nodded, accepting a flower in his hands before he walked away from the playground.

What the fuck had that been?

A repressed memory of some kind?

He was starting to think he shouldn't remember anything at all.

Izuku stared at the note in his hands.

It was from his mother.

Apparently, his father had wanted to contact him.

Izuku tore the note in half.

That man knew nothing about him.

He couldn't stand him, what did he want NOW?

He hadn't even seen him once since he was born.

What a horrible father. Did anyone have a father as terrible as his? He doubted it. Kacchan-Bakugo had a decent enough father from what little he'd seen of it when following him around.

But lately, he'd taken to avoiding Ka-Katsuki, he was just Katsuki, and they weren't friends. The blond had made that clear enough through all the years of bullying.

"Izuku, phone call!"

He got up and wandered inside, who was it calling now?

"Kacchan can be told I'm busy-"

"It's your father, and he specifically asked for you."

Izuku froze.

What the hell could he have wanted from him?

"Hello, who is this?"

There was a chuckle on the other end of the line.

"Izuku, you know who this is. Don't speak like we're strangers."

The young boy shook his head, even at his young age, he could tell his father was a liar.

"Why are you calling Mom again?"

"Izuku, why are you being so hostile? Don't you know, I'm your dad? I've done so much for your mother-and you, too, of course. It's been a bit of a burden having you, Izuku. Since you don't have a quirk and all, you created quite a complicated situation for me. So I had to find a way to save both of you...and I did. I know one day, you'll thank me for what I did, Izuku. It may be difficult now, because you can't have me in your life."

"I'm not useless. You know I'm not, don't you say that!" Izuku yelled into the phone.

"Izuku, Izuku, Izuku, it was a joke. I'm your beloved father. You know you've wanted to hear from me, haven't you? Well, anyway, a friend of mine wants to meet you, actually. He wants to know what it's like being bullied by heroes. He understands your pain and wants to listen."

"Who? What are you even saying, Dad? Just come home and be with Mom. She's real sad all of the time."

"Izuku, the thing is...the man I'm following has some great ideas about heroes. He knows how corrupt and tiresome they all really are. He wants to make things different for all of us. Your mother has no idea about all of this, don't you dare tell her anything of this conversation, understand? Or else I'll see to it that you really suffer things that make what that boy did to you seem like a joke. As you are now, you're a burden on the Midoriya name. But would you like it if you had a quirk?"

Izuku paused. "I...could get a quirk?"

"Yes, the man can give people quirks. It's amazing, really, what he's done for humanity. The heroes don't see it-they see him as a monster. It's because they hate what they can't understand, Izuku. They're all such hypocrites and tiresome. Wouldn't you like it if someone could speak for you as a quirkless person, Izuku? Someone who can speak your very pain to the world? You should join us, Izuku. Come meet with us."

"I have school."

"School can be done any old time. I'm giving you an offer you can never miss."

"I don't want anything from you. The father I know and love isn't here."

There was a pause for a moment, then the line went dead.

Meanwhile, Hisashi Midoriya snickered as he stood there.

His green eyes were glowing with madness as he stared down at the figure at his feet.

"You overheard too much, didn't you?"

The bound figure panicked, jerking around.

"Aw, you're so boring. Heroes like you really are the worst." He raised his knife and stabbed the person to death, "Izuku-kun, we really are alike, both you and I. And All for One...All for One will change the world!" He shouted to no one in particular.

He held out the blood-stained knife, not caring if it got on himself, and smiled. "Izuku-kun, you'll be like me, whether you like it or not. You belong to me. And he will change the world. That's what I believe."

Hisashi Midoriya, an insane man who would sacrifice everything for All for One, even to the point of abandoning his own family and friends.

Insanity blinded people to their own flaws and would eventually be the deaths of them.

Perhaps it is the knowledge of how to use the soul that burns within us that matters more than what our desires are.

But those who use their soul to spread evil are truly the soulless ones.

He hadn't expected to find the Todoroki child alive and well after the way the whole incident had happened.

But sure enough, there he was.

He'd known as much when two bodies had been burned beyond recognition in the hospital room, and somehow, Todoroki Touya was nowhere to be found.

But the child couldn't control his own quirk, and had too damaged of a body to be worth the transfer of his powers to him.

That was not the appropriate vessel for him to shift his powers into at the moment.

The boy was filled with so much hatred and anger it made him excited, but he was simply not good enough.

He would do as a useful tool against Endeavor, a good puppet to pull out at the last second, but for now, he had someone superior in mind.

Someone who activated his own quirk in a destructive way and who had wiped out his own family-Tenko Shimura, also known as Tomura Shigaraki.

Oh yes, things were looking up for him, indeed. He was going to get what he wanted, no matter who had to suffer to get it.

He was in a good mood, yes, he was. He was indeed.

Dabi awoke in a cold sweat.

The fire was burning his sheets again.

He put it out before frowning at his reflection.

"Just...who are you?" He asked himself.

Then his gaze drifted to the picture of the white-haired woman.

"...She might know the answers to what I seek." He whispered as he made a vow to find her one day.

He would find answers to what happened.

No matter who had to be sacrificed to make it all happen.